Key concepts and themes

RMIT’s Global Cities’ research agenda has two major themes:

• Globalization
• Global climate change

Themes are understood in terms of four key concepts:

Security
Our key focus here involves both the broad question of human security and, more particularly, examining the local-global context of a range of cities and communities in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia. These settings range from communities dealing with the aftermath of widespread violence or natural disasters to those polities-communities in countries such as Australia where, despite the absence of the immediate pressures of violence or natural disasters, cities are facing new kinds of insecurity. This is expressed in cultural, political, economic, ecological terms. Here one of our most pressing concerns is those local groups and communities who are most vulnerable in the face of insecurity and risk.

Resilience
Our aim here is to understand the technical and social capacities of cities and communities to respond actively to and practically address processes of globalization and the emerging impacts of climate change. In the face of social and environmental change, cities are experiencing increasing pressures. Existing and emerging patterns of resilience are important to the ongoing viability of communities and their infrastructures. Such patterns of resilience give communities a basis for considering different ways of ameliorating or adapting to emerging conditions such as climate change before they reach crisis proportions. Here our research ranges from a concern with housing and infrastructure to the nature of community itself.

Adaptation
Adaptation is the process by which responses to questions of sustainability are embedded in the practices of communities, organizations and governments. This involves developing and implementing strategies to ameliorate, moderate and cope with the consequences of global insecurities, including climate change and social pressure. Adaptation is one possible approach to enhancing resilience. In most cases, however, adequate research has not been done to guide such processes of adaptation. Conducting such research is central to the Institute as part of its brief to link research to applied outcomes.

Sustainability
Bringing together these various concerns about the sources of insecurity and risk, resilience and adaptation, our work centres on the question of sustainability. This involves developing the interpretative, practical and technical bases for more adequately understanding how conditions of positive human security and wellbeing might best be continued or revitalized under different circumstances. By bringing the interpretative social sciences and the natural and engineering sciences into a dialogue, the Institute works to develop a deep understanding of how to deal with issues of social and environmental sustainability. In other words, in collaboration with our local-global partners, we want to develop practical, socially-engaged, and ethically-considered responses to the question, ‘What is to be done?’ Critical sustainability is thus our core concept.